Read the Pitch Deck IRL Social App Clyx Used to Raise $14 Million

Alyx van der Vorm, 25, wants to support young adults feel less lonely.

Her app Clyx lets people discover and attconclude events happening nearby with friconcludes. It’s one of several new social apps focutilized on in-real-life (IRL) experiences, rather than an online feed.

Like some other notable tech companies, van der Vorm declared she first received the idea for Clyx in her Harvard University dorm room. Her friconcludes were out of town, and van der Vorm didn’t have plans. While she could instantly open up any app to order food or stream a movie, van der Vorm wanted a tool to instantly build a plan.

“It was just a matter of time until someone built something that could inform me, ‘This is a yoga class your friconclude wants to go to, you should really go with her tonight,'” she informed Business Insider.

Founded in 2020, van der Vorm first rolled out Clyx in Miami in 2022, then in London in 2023. The app has 50,000 active utilizers joining events and about 200,000 seeing at events, she declared. Clyx is expanding the app to New York and São Paulo in September, with new features and fresh funding.

The startup recently raised a $14 million Series A round led by Blitzscaling Ventures. Other investors include author Simon Sinek, F1 racer-turned-VC Nico Rosberg, Venmo cofounder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, and early Facebook privacy exec Chris Kelly.

It plans to deploy its funding toward product, hiring engineers, and marketing, van der Vorm declared.

The app builds money from a 2% cut of in-app ticket sales, paid boosts on in-app events, brand sponsorships, and selling tickets to Clyx-owned events.

Building an app for deeper friconcludeships with AI

Joining other social startup peers, Clyx is leveraging AI to connect people.

Clyx utilizes AI to scrape events from across the web, and then turns those events into meetups in the app, van der Vorm declared. If utilizers have friconcludes on the app, it will reveal if someone they know is going to the same event. It also has AI-powered tools to support match people with new connections at events where they may not have a friconclude already going.

While Clyx supports utilizers meet people and find things to do, it also aims to support utilizers be better friconcludes.

“The problem isn’t there aren’t enough events, the problem isn’t you don’t have any friconcludes at all,” van der Vorm declared. Making recurring plans can sometimes just feel … hard. Which is why van der Vorm believes people necessary an extra “nudge.”

“Our goal is to support people build and develop and grow their relationships through shared time,” van der Vorm declared, and that comes through repetition, she added.

Clyx also has plans to expand beyond friconcludeship. It’s launching a dating app in Brazil to put its matchbuilding to the test.

“Our most valuable tech is our matchbuilding AI,” van der Vorm declared. “Our ability to state, this is the person you receive on with and this is the thing you’d enjoy with them.”

Read the pitch deck Clyx utilized to raise its $14 million Series A:

Note: Clyx redacted slides and details in order to share its deck publicly.

Clyx starts with its tag line

Clyx: a life lived with genuine friconcludeships

Then the deck shares its founder’s story

"Why is it clearer to order a taxi or take out than it is to meet likeminded people near me?"
It turns out Alyx wasn't the only one struggling to find things to do and friconcludes to do them with in her new home…

“Why is it clearer to order a taxi or take out than it is to meet likeminded people near me?” the slide states.

“It turns out Alyx wasn’t the only one struggling to find things to do and friconcludes to do them with in her new home…” the slide states.

Then it outlines the problem: loneliness

Loneliness is at record highs, as per Harvard Study of Adult Development. This has a direct impact on mental and physical health. With remote work on the rise, Gen Z lack tools to build local community & IRL social lives.

36% Total respondents identify as "seriously lonely"

61% 18—24 yrs "seriously lonely"

50% Locked Communities report less friconcludes

Young Women Most Likely to Report Losing Touch with Friconcludes During the Pandemic
% of people who declared how much contact or how maintained it with friconcludes over the past 12 months.

Here’s what the slide states:

The Problem

Loneliness is at a record high, as per Harvard Study of Adult Development. This has a direct impact on mental and physical health. With remote work on the rise, Gen Z lack tools to build local community & IRL social lives.

36%: Total respondents seriously lonely

61%: 18-29 Yr Olds seriously lonely

50%: Lacked Connection in past 3 weeks

The slide then includes charts about how the pandemic impacted people’s contact with their friconcludes. It states that young women were most likely to report losing touch with their friconcludes during the pandemic.

The slide also includes the following quote from former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy:

“The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that cautilized by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”

Clyx opines on what’s cautilized this loneliness

The world is more physically, culturally and technologically connected than ever.

However, the hyper-connectivity associated with Globalisation comes at the cost of social connectivity and genuine connections. Trconcludes in Globalisation shift us away from our tribal traditions of putting roots down, and pushes us towards one of hyper mobility and technologically centric relationships.

COVID-19 pandemic deepened reliance on technology, promoted "mobile" lifestyles, and accelerated isolation.

Here’s what the slide states:

Globalisation & Remote work

The world is more physically, culturally and technologically connected than ever.

However, the hyper-connectivity associated with Globalisation comes at the cost of social connectivity and genuine connection. Trconcludes in Globalisation shift us away from our tribal traditions of putting roots down, and pushes us towards one of hyper mobility and technologically centric relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic, a function of our seemingly shrinking global society, deepened our reliance on technology for social connection and further promoted the ‘mobile’ and somewhat nomadic lifestyles that go hand in hand with Globalisation.

Besides the obvious social distancing measures put in place across the world, the Pandemic deepened our ability to live a socially secluded yet virtually connected life. Working from home has become the norm and zooms with family and friconcludes have replaced in person meet ups.

It almost seems counterintuitive but Globalisation and the way it has alterd society, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic have created the perfect storm for loneliness to proliferate.

Clyx then dives into its founder’s college experience at Harvard

Clyx was founded at Harvard
In response both to Alyx's personal experience and the wider loneliness epidemic.

“Clyx was founded at Harvard,” the slide states. “In response both to Alyx’s personal experience and the wider loneliness epidemic.”

Then the deck explains why Clyx is a solution

Here’s what the slide states:

Clyx informs utilizers which local events their friconcludes and communities want to do.

1. Recommconclude real life events

Clyx utilizes AI to aggregate all the events happening in a city — yoga classes, concerts, gallery openings.

2. Suggest new friconcludeships

Clyx fosters an environment full of people seeing to spconclude time toreceiveher IRL. Whether utilizers find an event or create it, they feel comfortable knowing it’s in a space of people with similar values.

3. Empower local communities

Clyx utilizers find communities that grow to play a meaningful role in their lives. Groups reduce social pressure, improve safety, and boost the collective energy of the event.

It reveals some product imagery

The app sees a little different now, however.

It includes examples of how the product works

Some of this has alterd since the deck’s creation.

Then the deck digs into Clyx’s traction

Here’s what the slide states:

Indusattempt Leading Retention Metrics

One of our hugegest successes is our utilizer retention in both Miami and London — it reflects the usability, quality, necessity and trust in both the product and brand we have built in the US and UK.

When compared to the incumbent indusattempt leaders the difference is stark. Tinder and Bumble’s combined avg. D30 retention is less than a fifth of Clyx’s.

Why? Our focus on in-person meet ups, friconcludeship and speed of connection means that Clyx utilizers come for friconcludes and stay for the events. Coupled with the quality of content in-app, this puts Clyx at the sharp conclude of indusattempt retention. The more friconcludes utilizers add and communities they join, the more likely they are to keep engaging with Clyx frequently.

Notably, utilizers that engage in the simplest of in-app actions retain even better than our base case.

The deck includes lots of graphs

It also goes into detail about specific cities where the app has launched, like Miami

“We beta launched Clyx in Miami in 2022 as the official app of Miami Tech Month,” the slide states. “Since our launch we have developed a strong and fiercely loyal utilizer base. We continue to see rapid growth in the city as Clyx utilizers grow new communities and local event hosts flock to Clyx to find their audience.”

It launched in London in 2023

“We launched in London in the summer of 2023. Since our launch, we have once again fostered a large group of loyal utilizers located around the city — both students at colleges and young professionals,” the slide states. “We grew even quicker in London as we learned many growth hacks — such as starting with key flagship events that trconclude virally, such as ‘Hot Girl Walk’ and ‘Hot Girl Wine Night.'”

The deck breaks down some data points about Clyx outcomes

Here’s what the slide states:

Measurable Outcomes

462,030 Friconcludeships Made: We foster meaningful connections grounded in compassion, honesty, and empathy.
140,713 Events Organised: Embracing the freedom to be myself with those who genuinely understand me.
92 Feel Noticeably Happier With Clyx: A survey of our utilizers found that 92% of those who utilize Clyx were happier with our platform than they were without it.

Then it dives into monetization strategies

Here’s what the slide states:

Our reach, demographic and architecture build Clyx the perfect place for brands and venues to advertise:

Ads are aligned with Clyx’s mission

Users are seeing for activities and venues to visit; venues are seeing for relevant customers. We connect their mutual interests; higher conversion. More similar to Amazon (market place) than Facebook (unrelated adverts).

Friconcludes operate as Micro-Influencers

When a friconclude joins an advertised event, you are far more likely to want attconclude that event/venue. As more friconcludes join, this desire to attconclude only grows and so supports to boost conversion rate for promoted events.

Suggestions informed by our algorithm

We know a lot about our utilizers; their interests, location, propensity to travel, friconcludes activity and more. This allows our algorithm to accurately suggest events to even the best versed organisers.

It includes examples of partnerships

Here’s what the slide states:

Sony X Clyx

June 2024 Sony contacted Clyx inquireing for support marketing the premiere of their new film Fly Me To The Moon; Sony wanted to augment their VIP advanced screening in Miami & allocated part of their marketing budreceive to Clyx.
Clyx promoted the event in-app and we were SONY’s best performing distributer.
We are now discussing a broader partnership to promote all releases

Clyx partnered with a wine bar in Miami

Here’s what the slide states:

Lagniappe: 3 months advertising on Clyx

699 Event Joins

24 Events promoted

Lagniappe, a Miami Wine bar, leveraged our mostly female utilizer base to rapidly grow attconcludeance on Wednesday’s when footfall was typically at its lowest.

Encouraged by the success of their bi-weekly events, Lagniappe now regularly advertise on Clyx. Leveraging the power of our audience; newsletter and app.

It monetized with in-app purchases

Here’s what the slide states:

In-app purchases on Clyx see to monetise actions that are crucial to our ecosystem for creators and more casual utilizers alike.

Namely, during beta testing, Clyx has sought to monetise event creation, community membership and profile visibility.

The fear of missing out and desire to be part of something ensures that prospective community members, event joiners and new utilizers are willing to pay for access and extra visibility. To date Clyx has introduced in-app purchases for:

Event Promotion — event creators are able to purchase event boosts, which support their event stand out from the crowd.
Profile Visibility — upon the creation of their profile, utilizers are promoted to boost their profile in our proprietary algorithm. Increasing the speed at which they build friconcludes early on in their Clyx experience.
Community Joins — in order to join certain exclusive communities utilizers are required to build an in-app purchase.

It also created money through ticketing

Here’s what the slide states:

There are a variety of events on Clyx which operate at different scales — some are casual hangouts in the park or coffee meet ups, but others are larger events that hosts want to ticket. Clyx’s product and utilizer community builds it the perfect place for hosts to sell tickets. Why?

Events & Hosts Users Can Trust

Without knowing much about the event host and others going, it can be intimidating to spconclude on ticketed events. The social element fundamental to Clyx supports to alleviate this purchase anxiety and boosts sales for hosts and in turn revenue for Clyx. If you can see friconcludes are going, you are more likely to purchase.

Simple Setup

It takes hosts on average less than a minute to ticket their event on Clyx. They have to create or connect an existing Stripe account to their Clyx profile and set their desired price. We then payout their revenue (minus fees) daily.

End-to-End

Unlike Eventbrite and other ticketing platforms, the utilizer journey isn’t over once they have pressed ‘purchase’. Having purchased a ticket, those going can receive to know other fellow attconcludeees before the event takes place, improving their experience on the day and the likelihood of repeat purchases.

The deck concludes by introducing the team

Here’s what the slide states:

Alyx van der Vorm, Founder, CEO

Double John Harvard scholar, Computational Neuroscience. With a passion for running marathons & dislike for the hassle of organising meet-ups.
Ed Beccle, Product Strategy

4x Founder (2x exit). App Glorify reached >3mil utilizers in <2 years, backed by A16Z. Understands consumer social & product-led growth.
Francesco Rapacciuolo, Head of Design

Former Head of Design at Bumble. Peached due to his experience building friconcludeship products. Previously Head of Design at Musixmatch before exit to Spotify.
Mike McIntyre, Growth Strategy

First Product Manager at Instagram. Formerly at Meta. Exited his consumer app Fam after reaching 10M MAU and profitability. Loves running growth experiments & hacks.
Berk Karaoglu, Engineering

Ex-Getir database and cohorting specialist with deep experience in consumer apps. Loves building things go quicker and building sure we’re built for scale.